New Democrats Call for Unified Police Complaints Process

Thursday, August 13, 2009 04:00 AM

Victoria, B.C. - Following the release of the report from the RCMP Complaints Commission Chair Paul Kennedy, New Democrat public safety and solicitor general critic Mike Farnworth wants the B.C. government to institute a unified police complaints process for B.C.

Farnworth says there needs to be a unified public complaint and investigation process for both municipal police forces and the RCMP in the province, “It is not acceptable for police to be investigating themselves.”

Kennedy made it clear that the RCMP should not be investigating their own members in serious cases, especially where a death is involved. The report is the result of an investigation that began in 2007 in response to wide-spread public concern about the national police force’s investigative processes. Farnworth, however, doesn’t think the report goes far enough.

“There needs to be more civilian oversight to ensure public confidence in the system and to protect officers from conflict of interest,” said Farnworth. “Bringing the RCMP and our civic police forces into a unified public investigation and complaints process is the best way ensure these investigations are being handled as transparently as possible with a uniform a set of policies and procedures across the province.”

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Posted on Thursday, August 13, 2009 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lmorge on August 13 2009 6:48 AM

What a joke - a politician with an agenda jumping on the wagon. The last thing anyone needs is a person who has no idea of the job of being a police officer trying to investigate the actions of a police officer.

Posted by: ammonra on August 13 2009 9:26 AM

The last thing anyone neads is police investigating police. I don't know why you presume the people who would investigate under a unified complaints system would not understant what it means to be a police officer. The suggestion merely talks about civilian oversight, and that is badly needed.

Posted by: thereasonableman on August 13 2009 9:46 AM

Blah, blah, blah...they could have brought this up while they were in power.

Now, it's the "ammunition of the day" to throw sh!t at the liberals.

Posted by: taxinapothole on August 13 2009 10:07 AM

Imorge, what are you saying?? For many, many months, I have read your comments. I found you to be a step above the rest, as far as RCMP go. I have always enjoyed your comments, and relished in the wisdom that you portray.

On this one, you are off course my friend. All we want, is an investigation done by people, other than police people. They are given the facts, and they deliberate on those facts!

It is know different than a murder trial. The jury has to rule on the facts presented to them. They chew over the facts, 12 of them, and come to a conclusion. None of them are experts, they are peers of the people! Sorry Imorge, they rule on facts.

Anyway, keep coming back to this site, I think you are one good person!

Posted by: astro on August 13 2009 10:48 AM

We should have a unified public complaint and investigation process into the RCMP. We have on for teachers in the province with the College of Teachers. We should also have an independent investigation process for lawyers as well as other professionals.

Posted by: thereasonableman on August 13 2009 8:09 PM

You can't have civilians investigating police, let's not get stupid.

You need enough experience to know when a line has been crossed.

Complainants often write fairy tales and you need to be able to find the truth.

Posted by: Truth on August 14 2009 12:15 AM

I lived in Ontario, where there is legal provisions for independent investigation, where a cop has injured a civilian. Unfortunately, the Special Investigations Unit was only effective until it was cop-ified by the Harris government. Once retired 45-for-25 slugs became investigators, independence collapsed. Dubious prosecutions led to failures in 2 Murder cases against cops.

We need to adopt the system in European states, where Prosecutor's offices direct major investigations, to ensure cops refrain from gold-bricking, and ignoring exculpatory evidence. And gold-bricking is common here. In the Brian Tickell case, where a Case Manager for the Public Guardian and Trustee embezzled from the vulnerable, prosecutors claimed that cops spent $1,000,000 investigating "13" files. That is a lot of Tim Horton's time.

I don't trust cop-cop or retired cop-cop investigations. It takes less than 700 hours of training and internships to make a BC cop. It takes about 3000 hours to train a lawyer. Do the math.

Posted by: thereasonableman on August 14 2009 1:25 PM

Oh no, I said the "T" word and look what happened.

Sorry, I didn't mean to wake him up.